Stephen Curry's injury, the fragility of the chase and remembering that things can change quickly

Things can change very quickly throughout the course of the NBA season, and the recent injury to Stephen Curry should serve as a stark reminder to us all.

It should also serve as motivation to the pretenders.

As the Thunder enter play on December 7 at 11-12, remarkably, the team is just 2.5 games outside of fourth place in the Western Conference.

Despite all that has seemed to have gone wrong, the Thunder are right there in the thick of things and sitting in a situation where they can quickly find themselves back toward the top of the conference, especially with the relatively favorable stretch of schedule the team will enjoy over the next four weeks.

Many spectators have already concluded that the Warriors and Cavaliers are headed for an unprecedented fourth straight battle in the NBA Finals, but Curry’s injury reminds us that an entire season can change in one play.

In the waning minutes of a game against the Pelicans that was already decided, Curry sustained a severely sprained ankle after chasing a steal. The injury occurred with a minute remaining, when the Warriors were up by 10 points.

In terms of injury probability, defending in the final minute of a game in which your team leads by 10 points seems to be the unlikeliest of times to injure oneself, but here we are.

As it relates to the Thunder, it’s important to understand that things can change awfully quickly – both good and bad. After sustaining the injury, Curry was upbeat and said that the most he can do is take things “one day at a time.” That advice is applicable to everyone around the NBA.

It’s certainly something that the Cavaliers kept in mind a few weeks ago.

With LeBron James and company heading to Madison Square Garden a few weeks ago, James seemed to take a cheap shot at Phil Jackson and, by extension, Knicks rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina. The Cavs entered the contest against the Knicks with a spotlight on them and the team has since used the victory as a galvanizing moment.

Since then, the Cavs have gone from the cellar in the Eastern Conference to its second seed. With 13 consecutive victories through December 7, the team has tied the franchise’s win streak record, and they’ll have an opportunity to set the all-time mark for the franchise when they visit the Pacers on December 8.

At the end of the day, the point is this: the NBA season is quite long. Players get hurt, teams jell and guys figure things out—it’s the nature of the game and it’s the nature of the 82-game gauntlet that the regular season is.

Without Curry, who is expected to miss a minimum of two weeks, the Warriors will be just fine. In their first game without their franchise player, Kevin Durant turned in a triple-double and led the Warriors to a 101-87 victory over the Hornets. There’s no need to be overly concerned about them, especially since the Warriors will play just five games in the two-week span that Curry is expected to miss.

Still, what Curry’s injury illustrated to us is something that the Celtics learned in the first game of the season when Gordon Hayward went down—things can change quickly.

As quickly as the Thunder have learned to squander big leads against inferior opponents is as quickly as they have figured out that having Steven Adams serve as a primary scorer might be one of their keys for success.

As quickly as Carmelo Anthony realized that he doesn’t need to shoot the ball every time he gets his hands on it is as quickly as ball movement and better shot selection can become characteristics of the team’s everyday play.

As the Thunder prepare to tip-off in Mexico City having won three games in a row and with an opportunity to pull themselves back up to .500, it would be wise to remind everyone of the fact that, in the NBA, things can change very quickly.

Curry’s injury and the Cavs’ recent success serve as examples of this, on both ends of the spectrum.

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Moke Hamilton

Moke Hamilton is a writer and columnist for the USA TODAY Sports Media Group's NBA Wire. Based in New York City, Moke has covered the NBA for seven seasons, previously working for Turner Sports and NBC Universal. He can be heard from time to time on the airwaves of 98.7FM ESPN New York.